The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science

can we do this ourselves at home? I got my hands on 80 pounds of Prime-grade bone-in, fat- cap-intact beef ...

degrees and rank them in overall preference, tenderness, and funkiness. Almost everybody who tasted mea ...

factor as you’d think, and we’ll find out why soon. Selecting Meat to Age Q: What cut of meat should I ...

own numerical designation. The 103 is the most intact. It’s an entire rib section (with ribs 6 through 1 ...

the beginning, lower as the aging progressed). I found that the more protection you have, the better your fi ...

smaller than the fresh rib-eyes on the display? Or that aged bone-in steaks are not stretching and ...

less aged the meat was, the more moisture it expelled. Why is this? One of the side effects of agin ...

muscle proteins into shorter fragments, which alters their flavor in desirable ways. But this effe ...

moment. Similarly, aged meat can pick up aromas from your refrigerator. Unless your refrigerator is ...

the interior meat is protected. That’s good news for home dry-agers! Timing Q: OK, I’m nearly convinced. ...

after more than a bite or two. It is rare that you will find any restaurant serving a steak thi ...

here. Step 5: Cook. Step 6: ??? Step 7: Profit. Q: What about wet-aging? What is it, and does it work? We ...

share, it’s best to assume the worst. The other drawback to wet-aging is that it can’t be done for as ...

KNIFE SKILLS: Trimming Aged Beef STEP 1: PEEL OFF THE FAT Start by peeling off the outer fat cap. Since it ...

STEP 2: START TRIMMING Trim off the outer fat layers. The goal is to remove as little meat as possible, so ...

STEP 3: ALMOST THERE! Keep trimming the outer surfaces until only clean white fat and red meat are showi ...

STEP 4: READY TO ROAST! Trimmed and ready to cook as a roast. To cut into individual steaks for cooking, re ...

STEP 5: STEAK! Carefully slice through the meat between the bones. The only difficult part will be around t ...

THE IMPORTANCE OF RESTING MEAT • Thought process of prehistoric man: Start large fire. Cook large steak ...

Here’s why: This is a picture of a steak that was cooked in a skillet to medium-rare (an internal ...